Despite making more than a million dollars in royalties from drilling on his 105-acre farm, Wayne Smith, a farmer in Clearville, Pennsylvania, wishes he’d never signed a lease. Some of his livestock mysteriously dropped dead after having motor-skill breakdowns; a veterinarian said the deaths could be attributed to arsenic, high levels of which were found in water on Smith’s property. (Smith also worries about health problems he has developed, such as frequent headaches, abscessed teeth, and other mouth problems.) In Avella, Pennsylvania, a wastewater impoundment caught fire and exploded on George Zimmermann’s 480-acre property, producing a 200-foot-high conflagration that burned for six hours and produced a cloud of thick, black smoke visible 10 miles away. An E.P.A.-accredited environmental-testing company sampled the soil around the well sites on Zimmerman’s property and found arsenic at 6,430 times permissible levels and tetrachloroethene, a carcinogen and central-nervous-system suppressant, at 1,417 times permissible levels.

“Even if the government does not acquire our land, if in our vicinity some such industry (coal or oil industry) is started, the whole idea of Vrindaban will fade away. Vrindaban conception is a transcendental village, without any botheration of the modern industrial atmosphere. … Industrial development (or mining industry) in the neighboring places will mar the whole idea. Now you have to consider, yourself, looking forward to the future, of the land, and then decide, what to do. I do not like to have New Vrindaban with industrial or mining areas. I have got experience of them in India, that the mining areas are simply next to dungeon. The workers in the mines are considered to be residing in the hell. And we can never expect any good behavior from such workers. So we must think of the atmosphere around Vrindaban. In India also our present government, they are trying to develop industries in the vast tracts of land around Vrindaban, and creating a hellish atmosphere. So I shall request you to be assured of the future of the land, and then do the needful.” – Srila Prabhupada, letter to Hayagriva pertaining to lease of land for New Vrindaban, August 17, 1968

On Sunday, dozens of people including members of the Hare Krishna community got together in Marshall County to sign over their natural gas rights. They see it as a way to invest in their community.

The New Vrindaban farm project in West Virgina, USA was conceived from the combination of enthusiastic commitment of two pioneering Hare Krishna devotees and the germ of ISKCON Founder-Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s vision for a spiritual community and a model of plain living and high thinking.

Its history has been set down in a fascinating read entitled Hare Krishna Explosion by Howard Wheeler, aka Hayagriva das, one of the founders of the community.

Prabhupada kept close tabs on the birthing process. In June, 1968, he wrote to Hayagriva:

I have advised Kirtanananda and yourself to convert West Virginia into New Vrindaban. I understand the spot is very beautiful, and the hills may be renamed as New Govardhana. And if there are lakes, they can be renamed as Syamakunda and Radhakunda. Vrindaban does not require to be modernized because Krishna’s Vrindaban is transcendental village. They completely depend on nature’s beauty and nature’s protection. The community in which Krishna preferred to belong was Vaisya community, because Nanda Maharaja happened to be a Vaisya king, or landholder, and his main business was cow protection. It is understood that he had 900,000 cows and Krishna and Balarama used to take charge of them, along with His many cowherd boy friends, and every day, in the morning He used to go out with His friends and cows into the pasturing grounds. So, if you seriously want to convert this new spot as New Vrindaban, I shall advise you not to make it very much modernized. But as you are American boys, you must make it just suitable to your minimum needs. Not to make it too much luxurious as generally Europeans and Americans are accustomed. Better to live there without modern amenities. But to live a natural healthy life for executing Krishna Consciousness. It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking. For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved. You do not require any machines, cinema, hotels, slaughterhouses, brothels, nightclubs – all these modern amenities. People in the spell of maya are trying to squeeze out gross pleasure from the senses, which is not possible to derive to our heart’s content. Therefore we are confused and baffled in our attempt to eschew eternal pleasure from gross matter. Actually, joyful life is on the spiritual platform, therefore we should try to save our valuable time from material activities and engage them for Krishna Consciousness. But at the same time, because we have to keep our body and soul together to execute our mission, we must have sufficient (not extravagant) food to eat, and that will be supplied by grains, fruits, and milk. So if you can develop this place to that ideal life and the residents become ideal Krishna Conscious men, in that part of your country, I think not only many philosophically minded people will be attracted, but they will be benefited also.

…The difficulty is that the people in this country, they want to continue their practice of sense gratification, and at the same time they want to become transcendentally advanced. This is quite contradictory. One can advance in transcendental life by process of negativating the general practice of materialistic life. The exact adjustment is in Vaisnava philosophy, which is called Yukta Vairagya, means that we should simply accept the bare necessities of our material part of life, and try to save time for spiritual advancement. This should be the motto of New Vrindaban, if you at all develop it to the perfectional stage.

…if you actually want to develop such ideal asrama, we must have sufficient land, and all other things will gradually grow. For raising crops from the land, how many men will be required – that we must estimate and for herding the cows and feeding them. We must have sufficient pasturing ground to feed the animals all round. We have to maintain the animals throughout their life. We must not make any program for selling them to the slaughterhouses. That is the way of cow protection. Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban. Vrindaban is also known as Gokula. Go means cows, and kula means congregation. Therefore the special feature of New Vrindaban will be cow protection, and by doing so, we shall not be loser. In India of course, a cow is protected and the cowherdsmen they derive sufficient profit by such protection. Cow dung is used as fuel. Cow dung dried in the sunshine kept in stock for utilizing them as fuel in the villages. They get wheat and other cereals produced from the field. There is milk and vegetables and the fuel is cow dung, and thus, they are self-independent in every village. There are hand weavers for the cloth. And the country oil-mill (consisting of a bull walking in circle round two big grinding stones, attached with yoke) grinds the oil seeds into oil. The whole idea is that people residing in New Vrindaban may not have to search out work outside. Arrangements should be such that the residents should be self-satisfied. That will make an ideal asrama. I do not know these ideals can be given practical shape, but I think like that; that people may be happy in any place with land and cow without endeavoring for so-called amenities of modern life – which simply increase anxieties for maintenance and proper equipment. The less we are anxious for maintaining our body and soul together, the more we become favorable for advancing in Krishna Consciousness. – Prabhupada to Hayagriva, June 14, 1968

From its very humble beginnings, Prabhupada had great plans for New Vrindaban’s future. Prabhupada wanted to establish it as a more or less self-sufficient community dedicated to the Krishna conscious way of life – not merely as a haven for the devotees, but as an example for the rest of the world to see and learn from, like an oasis in the desert where anyone and everyone can come to quench his thirst.

New Vrindaban was the first Hare Krishna farm community. It was an experiment – growing food grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and flowers in the fertile earth, milking cows and training oxen to work the fields, introducing a local-based economy using low-end technology and craftsmanship practiced for thousands of years in India on American soil where a global economy and ever-evolving, ever more complex technology rules. All with the idea of making a simple solution to the basic needs of life and devoting the time and energy saved to cultivation of self realization, love of God.

Buildings were erected – a temple, huts, a barn… and over the years, a school, more housing. The community expanded. Food crops were bountiful, and the cows produced a great quantity of milk, which the devotees used to make so many different nutritious preparations – yogurt, butter, buttermilk, milk sweets like sandesh, rasagulla, burfi, khir… and with the excess milk they made and sold cheese and ghee. The standard of deity worship rose, and with it prosperity and opulence.

Then in 1977 Prabhupada departed from this world.

New Vrindaban’s commander in chief, Kirtanananda Swami, shared with the community’s devotees his inspiration to build a memorial, a temple, a palace to commemorate Prabhupada, and the devotees rallied with great effort and determination to accomplish the dream: Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. Devotees themselves did the work, from the clearing of the site and foundation work to the cutting and laying of marble floors and walls and manufacture of wrought iron sections to the final interior decoration and adornments that include gold leaf detail. It was a fabulous, fantastical piece of work, which has attracted tourists and pilgrims from the region and beyond ever since, arriving in busloads daily.

But it required money. Lots of it. More than what the community could bring in from farming revenues. The farm was never fully self-sufficient, but there was some supplementary income from book sales or devotees working jobs, enough to get by. However, the construction of Prabhupada’s Palace necessitated a larger cash flow. Perhaps this is where New Vrindaban first began to go off track. Teams of devotees – men and women – went out on the road to raise money with sales of books, candles and other paraphernalia.

The building programme expanded. Next was a new temple with ashram, a lake with guest cottages… At the time when I last visited with my husband back in 1985 or thereabouts, most of the devotees were out on the road, collecting money, except for a handful of devotees who operated the farm, and they were so short-handed that they had taken to hiring non-devotees, paying them wages to do jobs around the place. Plenty of cash was flowing in, yet as much money came in, the more dependent the community became on it.

And so New Vrindaban lost its way … changed from a community of devotees sworn to living off the earth and depending on nature’s gifts and offering all these back to Krishna and making an example of how cows and oxen contribute to the prosperity of the community, thereby demonstrating to the public at large how cow protection is economically viable.

Instead, New Vrindaban has for years survived practically on income from tourist groups who still trickle in to see Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold and donations from the Indian community in the area as well as collections brought in by devotees who still go out to sell books and other paraphernalia. The temple roof needs repairs. Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold needs repairs. Many devotees left; devotees now are receiving salaries. Much of the land has been sold in parcels. There are fewer cows. And the cow protection programme has lapsed into little more than “Adopt a Cow”. Not that it is a bad idea to collect donations for keeping cows from being slaughtered, but if we really want to protect the cow and bull, we need to propagate awareness of their importance and show the viability of engaging them practically.

Most recently, New Vrindaban has sold drilling rights to a natural gas company, which employs fracking to extract natural gas from deposits deep underground. How this will impact the soil, water and air has yet to be assessed. We do not know the full terms of the contract, how many drill sites will be operated on the land (In Upshur County they’re drilling one gas well on every hundred acres – supposedly the optimum distance between wells is 3,500 – 5,000 feet), but ISKCON has signed on with about 2,000 acres for $2,500 an acre and 18 3/4 percent of the gas royalties.

This contract does defile New Vrindaban. It goes to the very core of the community. The persons responsible for signing that contract have directly disobeyed the express wishes of Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya, as conveyed in a letter to Hayagriva (one of the pioneers of New Vrindaban):

Even if the government does not acquire our land, if in our vicinity some such industry (coal or oil industry) is started, the whole idea of Vrindaban will fade away. Vrindaban conception is a transcendental village, without any botheration of the modern industrial atmosphere. My idea of developing New Vrindaban is to create an atmosphere of spiritual life where people in bona fide order of social division, namely, Brahmacaris, Grhasthas, Vanaprastha, Sannyasis, or specifically Brahmacaris and Sannyasis, and Vanaprasthas, will live there independently, completely depending on agricultural produce and milk from the cows. The life should be simplified without being hampered by laboring day and night for economic development, without any spiritual understanding. The New Vrindaban idea is that persons who live there will accept the bare necessities of life to maintain the body and soul together and the major part of time should be engaged in development of Krishna Consciousness. The whole Vedic principle is to develop Krishna Consciousness, without creating much botheration for the program of sense gratification. Industrial development (or mining industry) in the neighboring places will mar the whole idea. Now you have to consider, yourself, looking forward to the future, of the land, and then decide, what to do. I do not like to have New Vrindaban with industrial or mining areas. I have got experience of them in India, that the mining areas are simply next to dungeon. The workers in the mines are considered to be residing in the hell. And we can never expect any good behavior from such workers. So we must think of the atmosphere around Vrindaban. In India also our present government, they are trying to develop industries in the vast tracts of land around Vrindaban, and creating a hellish atmosphere. So I shall request you to be assured of the future of the land, and then do the needful. – Prabhupada to Hayagriva, August 17, 1968

Of course they sing a song about how the $10 million they will be getting is going to fix the roof and make other repairs and allow them to put up environmentally friendly solar panels and plant an organic garden and inject more money into their cow protection programme. But at the end of the day, they have prostituted themselves. They have sold out the ideals and vision of the Founder-Acharya for a paltry $10 million. They have made a lie out of New Vrindaban.

All those things they say they can now afford to do they could have done without turning to the natural gas company. New Vrindaban will not be saved by an injection of money. It needs an injection of leadership which is loyal and true to the pure spiritual vision of Prabhupada. It is Prabhupada’s desire and grand plan that brought devotees to New Vrindaban and built it up from brambles and wild woods in the remote hills of West Virgnia to a prosperous farm stretching over 4,000 acres with barns, houses, temples, plentiful harvest, happy cows and devotees who were unafraid of honest toil. When Prabhupada’s desires and instructions are enshrined in the hearts of the devotees, they will attract more devotees to come, and they will fix the roofs, repair the temples, plant the gardens, and improvise to implement the time-honored, environmentally friendly methods he has recommended. And if something is needed, something is lacking… Krishna has promised:

Those who worship Me with devotion, meditating on My transcendental form-to them I carry what they lack and preserve what they have. – Bhagavad-gita As It Is 9.22

Depending on Krishna, serving Krishna, serving the spiritual master – this is the heart of the New Vrindaban project established by Prabhupada.

Ten million dollars will be spent off, and then again the roof will need fixing, the temples will fall into disrepair, the cows will burn through their hay… No, money cannot make up for lack of inspiration. And let’s hope there are no serious accidents such as have been reported from other fracking sites – no contamination of soil and aquifiers or air.

ISKCON has failed to consider Prabhupada’s instructions regarding the development of New Vrindaban. They have not heeded calls that New Vrindaban has derailed. Instead of putting heads together to revive and re-energize New Vrindaban and other ISKCON farm projects with the determination that the New Vrindaban experiment could not only prosper but grow, and serve as a model for others to emulate – and in this way provide a platform for people around the world to integrate into a Krishna conscious way of life – ISKCON has capitulated to the karmis, as good as admitted that New Vrindaban is a failure, that it depends not on Krishna, but on the Petroleum industry. This is a serious spiritual falldown. In these days of democracy, however, what else could we expect? Prabhupada has been outvoted by the GBC.

I’m not up on the latest GBC appointments and resolutions, but it seems to me that heads need to roll. This decision to sign the contract allowing drilling for natural gas on New Vrindaban land goes against everything Prabhupada taught and against his explicit instructions. What kind of representation is that?

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10 thoughts on “Betrayal of New Vrindaban”

Hare Krishna
I am very sorry to hear this. What spiritual let down. These GBC members must not be loyal to Prabhupada or to Krishna. Such sham. What can we do. There is no rallying against this? This must end. Oil drilling is one of the biggest problems on the planet, and as a movement that stands for spirituality, and this is hypocrisy. Shame on them. Keep protesting, this needs to be heard.
Thank you for posting this.
Prtvi DD

No other quotes or arguments are necessary, this is spiritually, morally, and materially wrong.

Srila Prabhupada’s instructions are final on any matter:

“Even if the government does not acquire our land, if in our vicinity some such industry (coal or oil industry) is started, the whole idea of Vrindaban will fade away.”(Srila Prabhupada)

“Industrial development (or mining industry) in the neighboring places will mar the whole idea. Now you have to consider, yourself, looking forward to the future, of the land, and then decide, what to do. I do not like to have New Vrindaban with industrial or mining areas. I have got experience of them in India, that the mining areas are simply next to dungeon. The workers in the mines are considered to be residing in the hell. And we can never expect any good behavior from such workers. So we must think of the atmosphere around Vrindaban. In India also our present government, they are trying to develop industries in the vast tracts of land around Vrindaban, and creating a hellish atmosphere. So I shall request you to be assured of the future of the land, and then do the needful”. ( Srila Prabhupada)

To disobey the this order of the Spirittual Master is suicide, nam aparadha, dhama aparadha and guru aparadha, all together. Can anyone save New Vrindavana from the hands of such culprits who pose as GBC’s and occupiers of Srila Prabhupada’s asana? Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the GBC. Revolution is the only solution. It is not to late. Everyone in New Vrindavana and the world, arise!!! Hari bolo.

This news is utterly incomprehensible. It completely undermines Srila Prabhupada’s vision for New Vrindavan and forever dashes the hope for it to shine as an example for the rest of the world of a self-sustainable community. If you ever hear an ISKCON preacher again mention the slogan, “Simple living high thinking,” cry out, “Hypocrites! Hypocrites! Fie on thee! What happened in New Vrindaban?” Then walk out in disgust. It seems we shall have to go elsewhere to follow Prabhupada’s true line of thought. It is a low point in ISKCON history and yet another tragedy in GBC-sponsored blundering. Selling one’s soul to the devil couldn’t be more vividly illustrated than the decisions taken here.

First there was no business only bhjaan. Now when Abhiram is found out he speaks up and we are now told there is business involved in his stay in Vrindavan. It is only when their reputations are threatened that these people speak. In India there is alway black money to be made. Narendra has always been referred to as Land Mafia by devotees. Abhiram is either naive or ill informed. ISKCON has enough problems without getting entangled in Land Mafia business. The land mafia are notorious for using improper methods of land acquisition and this has been the experience of many foreigners in Vrindavan who have owned land. If he is involved in this shady land deal then what other shady deals is this man involved in? Where does Panca Gauda fit into these plans of Abhiram s? They are friends and there is money to be made after all. Now the truth is coming out how much more of the accusations against them will come to be true?